Don’t do drugs, kids. Especially if you’re female. Women dependent on stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine appear to have less grey matter, even after they stop using them. Weirdly, men’s brains don’t show this difference.
The brain regions most affected are those involved in reward, emotion and learning – although it isn’t clear yet whether the smaller than average size of these brain areas could be a cause or effect of addiction. Jody Tanabe, at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, hopes these results will help lead to a better understanding of sex differences in substance abuse, and better, more distinct treatments for women.
Tanabe’s team used MRI scans to measure the brain volumes of 59 people previously dependent on stimulants and compared them with people who have never been dependent on these kinds of drugs. On average, the 28 women who had formerly been dependent on a stimulant drug had a smaller volume of grey matter in their prefrontal cortices, temporal lobes, insulae and other regions. This effect was not seen in men.
Shrinking brains
The women who had been addicted also differed in their personalities – on average, they were more impulsive and more reward-driven. We already know that women respond differently to stimulants: they start taking the drugs earlier, use larger quantities and may have more difficulty quitting. It’s possible that this pattern of female addiction could be linked to the brain size difference.
However, it’s unclear whether less grey matter causes female addictive behaviours, or if addiction might shrink these brain regions. “The question of causality is complex. There is evidence for both pre-existing and post-drug changes in brain structure and function,” says Tanabe.

By Maria Konnikova
This is the third piece in a three-part series on sleep. Read part one, on falling asleep, and part two, on sleeping and dreaming.
Did you get enough sleep last night? Are you feeling fully awake, like your brightest, smartest, and most capable self? This, unfortunately, is a pipe dream for the majority of Americans. “Most of us are operating at suboptimal levels basically always,” the Harvard neurologist and sleep medicine physician Josna Adusumilli told me. Fifty to seventy million Americans, Adusumilli says, have chronic sleep disorders.
In a series of conversations with sleep scientists this May, facilitated by a Harvard Medical School Media Fellowship, I learned that the consequences of lack of sleep are severe. While we all suffer from sleep inertia (a general grogginess and lack of mental clarity), the stickiness of that inertia depends largely on the quantity and quality of the sleep that precedes it. If you’re fully rested, sleep inertia dissipates relatively quickly. But, when you’re not, it can last far into the day, with unpleasant and even risky results.
Many of us have been experiencing the repercussions of inadequate sleep since childhood. Judith Owens, the director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital, has been studying the effects of school start times on the well-being of school-age kids—and her conclusions are not encouraging. Most adults are fine with about eight hours of sleep, but toddlers need around thirteen hours, including a daytime nap. Teens need around nine and a half hours; what’s more, they tend to be night owls, whose ideal circadian rhythm has them going to bed and waking up late. As schools have pushed their start times earlier and earlier—a trend that first started in the sixties, Owens says—the health effects on students have been severe.